This story too is found also in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and in most European languages,[14] though, strangely enough, it does not occur in our books of Æsop’s Fables. But in the ‘Æsop’s Fables’ is usually included a story of a tortoise who asked an eagle to teach him to fly; and being dropped, split into two![15] It is worthy of notice that in the Southern recension of the Pañca Tantra it is eagles, and not wild ducks or swans, who carry the tortoise;[16] and there can, I think, be little doubt that the two fables are historically connected. Another fable, very familiar to modern readers, is stated in the commentary to have been first related in ridicule of a kind of Mutual Admiration Society existing among the opponents of the Buddha. Hearing the monks talking about the foolish way in which Devadatta and Kokālika went about among the people ascribing each to the other virtues which neither possessed, he is said to have told this tale. The Jackal and the Crow. JAMBU-KHĀDAKA JĀTAKA. (Fausböll, No. 294.) Long, long ago, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benāres, the Bodisat had come to life as a tree-god, dwelling in a certain grove of Jambu-trees. Now a crow was sitting there one day on the branch of a Jambu-tree, eating the Jambu-fruits, when a jackal coming by, looked up and saw him. “Ha!” thought he. “I’ll flatter that fellow, and get some of those Jambus to eat.” And thereupon he uttered this verse in his praise: “Who may this be, whose rich and pleasant notes Proclaim him best of all the singing-birds? Warbling so sweetly on the Jambu-branch, Where like a peacock he sits firm and grand!” Then the crow, to pay him back his compliments, replied in this second verse: “’Tis a well-bred young gentleman, who understands To speak of gentlemen in terms polite! Good Sir!--whose shape and glossy coat reveal The tiger’s offspring--eat of these, I pray!” And so saying, he shook the branch of the Jambu-tree till he made the fruit to fall. But when the god who dwelt in that tree saw the two of them, now they had done flattering one another, eating the Jambus together, he uttered a third verse: “Too long, forsooth, I’ve borne the sight Of these poor chatterers of lies-- The refuse-eater and the offal-eater Belauding each other!” And making himself visible in awful shape, he frightened them away from the place! * * * * * It is easy to understand, that when this story had been carried out of those countries where the crow and the jackal are the common scavengers, it would lose its point; and it may very well, therefore, have been shortened into the fable of the Fox and the Crow and the piece of cheese. On the other hand, the latter is so complete and excellent a story, that it would scarcely have been expanded, if it had been the original, into the tale of the Jackal and the Crow.[17]